Ryan Zimmerman named to his second career MLB All-Star Game

There will be at least one Virginia baseball alumni in the 2017 MLB All-Star Game as Washington Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman earned himself a starting spot on this year’s National League team. This is Zim’s second trip to All-Star weekend, and his first appearance as a starter.

Zimmerman has been electric this season, batting .330 with 19 home runs and 62 RBI for the NL East first place Nationals. He is third in the NL in batting average, and tied for fourth (with teammate Bryce Harper) in RBI. His last appearance in the ASG was in 2009, the same season he earned his only Gold Glove Award, and one of his two Silver Slugger Awards (the other was 2010).

Fellow Virginia alum, Mark Reynolds, still has a chance at making the ASG as he is one of five players who are up for the last spot as part of the Final Vote. Reynolds and Zimmerman both patrolled the Cavalier infield in 2003 and 2004, helping the Hoos make the NCAA tournament in 2004, which ended a seven year postseason drought. For the season, Reynolds is batting .282 with 19 home runs and 61 RBI. The 19 home runs apiece ties Zimmerman and Reynolds for 9th in the National League so far this season. Reynolds is competing against Washington’s Anthony Rendon, Chicago’s Kris Bryant, Miami’s Justin Bour, and LA’s Justin Turner.

If you want to help Mark get into the All Star Game, you can vote by:

• Texting ‘N4’ to 82969 (I’m sure standard text and data rates will apply...so don’t send Streaking the Lawn any cell phone bills full of Mark Reynolds texts)
• Tweeting with his official hashtag #BeLikeMark
• Visit https://www.mlb.com/all-star/final-vote and select Reynolds (and Xander Bogaerts while you’re there...why not)

You can catch all the action July 11th on Fox at 7:30pm.